Dáil debates

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Environmental Protection Agency (Emergency Electricity Generation) (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

4:47 pm

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 8, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:

“Report on Implementation 9.The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on the application of the provisions of this Act. This report shall include, but not be limited to—
(a) the current and future status of energy security in the State, and

(b) an analysis of the levels of CO2emissions resulting from the application of this Act.”

This is similar to the previous amendment. It relates to the provision of information and keeping the Dáil informed of the status, operation and implementation of the Bill. It is a simple amendment. Considering the Minister in his contribution to yesterday’s debate said he looked forward to working with Members in a collaborative manner on the Bill, I hope he takes the amendment on board. Essentially, we are asking for information that will be provided or can be collated on the current and future energy security of the state. The McCarthy review would probably contain a considerable volume of that information, as would the information collated by EirGrid, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and other entities. That could be easily provided to the Oireachtas.

The amendment refers to analysis of the levels of CO2emissions resulting from the application of this Act. We talk all the time about how we will reduce emissions; we have less discussion about how to stop them growing. Whether because of emergency situations or a lack of monitoring, we are not collating that information or making it easily accessible.

I agree that emergency legislation is needed to deal with energy security and we discussed yesterday the reason for that, namely, bad planning by successive Governments. That is why we are in the situation we are in. We need to address it and unpalatable things need to happen to do that. I want a transparent acknowledgement of what that means and of the impact it will have on us meeting our targets. That transparency has not been present to date. We talk about 450 MW. What does that mean in emissions? What is the equivalent number of cars or household emissions? We need that kind of discussion. If something is not monitored, it cannot be controlled. The Minister in his previous response said the data will be collected by the EPA. All I ask is that he bring it back to the Oireachtas so we can have a discussion on it. That should not be too great an impost on the Government, considering the emergency nature of this and the energy security and climate crises we are in. I hope the Minister looks favourably on the amendment.

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